Celebrities on Hot Flashes

By Alesha Whyte

Wanda Sykes

In her 2004 book, Yeah I Said It, Sykes likens menstruation to the the trials of menopause: "Why didn’t they mention this sh_ in the book Are you There God? It’s me Margaret?" referring to Judy Blume’s 1970 influential book on coming of age. Poking fun at the need for menopause guidance, Sykes said: "Better yet will there be a menopause edition called Lord Jesus! Maggie Put Down the Gun!"

Cybill Shepherd

Shepherd initially thought of her hot flashes as "sort of fun power surgers." She also said, "I was the first baby boomer to have a prime-time hot flash." But, later she admitted the hot flashes became "really intense and not much fun." In 2004, Shepherd made fun of her situation in a hilarious song and video aptly named The Menopause Blues where she belts out her sufferings while helplessly trying to cool off.

Bette Midler

In a 2001 interview with O, The Oprah magazine, the Divine Miss M revealed, "I did have night sweats and hot flashes at first. Then I did this soy-and-primrose oil thing, which helped tremendously. I don’t suggest anyone obsess over menopause and aging. Still, it is true that in this culture, they throw you out when you get older. I see it all the time, especially in my business. At my age, you’re playing somebody’s mother-and there aren’t even a lot of those roles!"

Madonna

Pal Rosie O’Donnell implied in a 2009 interview on the Tyra Banks Show that Madge has already dealt with menopause, and had imparted some wisdom to the comedian. "She's [Madonna] great, she’s a lot like a big sister. When I started having my hormone things, I’m like 'What the hell is going on?’ She’s like 'get the cream.’"

Whoopi Goldberg

When Whoopi Goldberg suffered a lengthy hot flash on a 2008 episode of The View fanning herself, she shared how she can’t stand the way her underwear sticks to her. In another interview, she said, "I’m up, down, hot, cold, I’m all over the place. My sex drive has totally changed. One minute I’m like 'yeah I can’t wait for it.’ The next I’m saying 'Oh God, go away.’"

Roseanne Barr

In her 2006 HBO special Blonde and Bitchin,’ Barr fantasized about the apocalypse and her menopausal state: "I think they’re going to send someone after me with a needle full of hormones and I’m not falling for that again!" Later she told the New York Times that "humor is a great way to dull the jagged edges of menopause. Humor makes everything that’s big, smaller. You can first recognize it, then you name it and then you manage it."

Patti LaBelle

The singer/cookbook author remembers her menopausal time: "Going through that period I cried a lot, I cried all the time," Labelle once said in an interview. "I didn’t know why I was crying. I would sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and I would cry through the whole song. And it hit me like that…I was a menopausal witch with a capital B. I was like a bad girl!"

Rosie O’Donnell

In a 2010 interview on The Oprah Show, O’Donnell divulged that her menopause symptoms began at age 41 with hot flashes bad enough to inspire her to get what she dubbed the "menopause hot flash haircut." To show it off to the audience, O’Donnell lifted up the back of her hair, which exposed a segment that was only one-and-a-half inches long. She said that cutting off that hair in the back made her feel a lot cooler.

Suzanne Somers

Actress and fitness guru Suzanne Somers has been telling us how to be healthier since she first brought us the Thighmaster in the 80s. Now, in a more controversial move, she’s urging us to use bioidentical hormones to combat the effects of menopause. In a 2004 Today Show, she bemoaned the "seven dwarfs of menopause," which she called "itchy, bitchy, sweaty, sleepy, bloated, forgetful and all dried up."

Cheryl Ladd

For actress Cheryl Ladd it was hard to accept that she was entering menopause when she began experiencing mood swings and skin changes. In a 2002 interview she said, "I considered myself informed on health matters and thought I could handle menopause without too much trouble. Only later did I realize that this was another form of denial." Ladd revealed that she decided to use hormone therapy (HT) because "eventually my mood swings got to a point that my husband asked me to please speak with the doctor."

Hot Planet!

Astronomers have discovered that our solar system has been harboring an exoplanet, described as having "a galactic case of hot flashes. Exoplanet HD 80606b discovered in 2001, mirrors Jupiter’s size, but has four times the mass and can heat up anywhere from 980 degrees F to almost 2,240 degrees F—a spike of 1,260 degrees in only six hours. And you think you get hot!